Friday, 23 July 2010

Councillors slam Tory/Lib Dem school building cuts

Labour councillors Alex Bigham, Pete Bowyer and Imogen Walker have slammed the recent admission by Tory Education secretary Michael Gove that he is cutting more than £200 million in Lambeth schools funding.

Although no schools in Stockwell are affected thankfully, nearby schools including Lansdowne Primary, Lilian Baylis and Archbishop Tenison’s had been promised new school buildings under the Building Schools for the Future project, but the Tory/Lib Dem coalition government has now dashed their hopes. Michael Gove has now cancelled the rebuild of eleven schools.

Labour councillor Alex Bigham said: “Local families had been promised these improvements for their schoolchildren, but now they will be forced to have lessons in buildings that aren’t as good as they should be. If your child goes to a school with a leaking roof or poor sports facilities, you know who to blame.”

“Lambeth is still desperately short of places for secondary school age children, despite Labour building three new schools from scratch in the last few years. Labour’s plans for school rebuilding would have created the extra places our borough need – but the Tories and Lib Dems will leave our children having to travel miles out of the borough to get to school.

Lambeth Labour are now leading a ‘Save Our Schools’ campaign, to shame the Tory/Lib Dem government into reversing their short-sighted decision. They are urging local parents and children to write to Education secretary Michael Gove telling him how their decision will affect their education. He can be contacted at:

The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP
Secretary of State for Education
Sanctuary Buildings
Great Smith Street
London SW1P 3BT
or email ministers@education.gsi.gov.uk

About this Blog

This site was set up by people who want to stand up for Stockwell. It has community information about Stockwell as well as news from your Labour action team- Alex Bigham, Guilherme Rosa and Imogen Walker.